thrift junky chronicles { 15 }

 

I am pretty sure something is wrong with me.  I seriously cannot think straight, stay on one task, or finish anything to completion.  I am going to be admitted to the looney bin at the age of 40 I think.  :(

At least today I managed to take some pictures during good light for the blog; that is important right?  Actually I did some important things done, but they don’t sound very important so I’m not telling you. 

Anyway, I haven’t shared any thrift store finds in a while so I thought I would share some goodies from my last two trips…

Right before my sale, I found three footed milk glass bowls ($2.99/ea) at one time, and thought that was crazy, and now this time I found four!  They will become pincushions for my etsy shop which I still have not gotten up… I have the stuff… hopefully hubby will let me lock myself in the bedroom Saturday and get everything listed.

The old wooden rack with dividers ($5) in the back is super shadowed – sorry – but it is going to hold all of my ribbon spools, whenever I locate them in my attic.  Here is a closer shot…

I have my vintage ric rac find holding the ribbon’s place for now.  =)

I got that little blue juice glass ($0.69) to use as a tea light holder in my room.

I am discovering that I am moving away from country and more toward vintage with my tastes, so I thought it would be a nice touch in my room, which is stuck in a year long makeover… it is officially on the to-do-list, though!  Progress!

Next we have some books and a sweet blue loaf pan ($1.99)…

The loaf pan holds hubby’s fancy new shaving supplies he got for christmas.

That book with the diamonds is titled “Harlequin House”… Harlequin rung bells, and it was copyright 1939 and totally cute, so I bought it ($3) without knowing much about it.  Looking up the harlequin novels, I think they are the quite racy and inappropriate ones… looking this particular one up online didn’t show much – only one identical copy for sale for $9.99 with no description.  I read a few pages and it seemed like all the other historical romance… might have to tentatively try it. 

The Hebrew book is crazy (also $3)!  We briefly studied the very basics of the Hebrew language in bible school at my church, and this book caught my attention…

--that is the FRONT cover of the book!  Hebrew reads from right to left so the whole book situated that way… strange!  Looks pretty on the shelf.

Last but certainly not least we have some material that I couldn’t pass up, since it was a manager’s special -- all linens were 30% off!…

The top one is very drapy and soft, I might try to make a shirt out of it, but it is a square scarf ($2.99), so I’m going to look at Wendy’s video and see if there is a cool way I can wear it.  Let’s face it, it’d be like a year before I did anything with it … is that just me?

The middle is a set of sweet vintage pillowcases (set $2.99) that will make great “go but not matchey” pillows for my bed [cough] if I ever get my quilt done!!!

And the bottom is actually a set of fitted and flat queen sheets (set $6.99) which are making their way into my bathroom makeover…

It makes an excellent shower curtain!  The one I wanted at Tarjay was $20 and I needed two because I have another project in this room, so getting this set instead at the thrift store saved me $37!!!  Awesome. 

What is not awesome is losing Susie’s last pacifier and starting potty training the same day…

For some reason she seems to have stage fright and keeps pointing her finger and saying “Hey, get that camera out of here!”… I don’t know why.

But things are looking up, I just found out I am off today through next Tuesday!  WOOT!  WOOT!  Maybe I can get some things done around here and share them with you!

Until then, remember, always wash your hands…

Peace!

my christmas surprise story

Update: sweet Nicole sent me pics!  See below!

I am finally sitting down to write the story of my surprise on Christmas Eve.
First you need a little background story.  This is how my husband handles surprises.  It is the story of our engagement in a nut shell… 

Hubby wants to go on a little hike. 
We drive to it. 
Road is snowed in, so little hike now = very long hike. 
I don’t want to go for womanly reasons, if you know what I mean. 
He pushes me to go. 
I say no. 
He says, “Fine, I’ll give you your ring some other time.” 

Horrible, right?  I know he just cannot keep surprises like that.  So I never expect them from him.  Well now he has proven me wrong, in a big way…

Christmas Eve morning we packed up and rushed out of the house to head to my folks’ in the mountains.  We had to stop for diapers and my hubby said we could go to Fred Meyer and go to Starbucks, which he calls “Fivebucks” and only justifies going there if it is a road trip, date or special occasion.  =)

First, I asked him to swing by my work so I could give them their Christmas card which also had a gift in it.  He asks, “Do we have to?”  “Yes,” I said, “it’s Christmas Eve; I don’t want to give it to them late when we get back.”  So he drove me there and said, “We’re just going to put it in the mailbox.”  I was like, “No, that is rude, plus they will see us on the surveillance cameras and be sad that we didn’t say ‘Hi’.”  That is when he stopped at the mailbox, very politely took the card envelopes from my hand, deposited them in the mailbox continued down the road.  Well, that was kind of rude, I thought.  I very consciously decided not to pick a fight about it.  We went on our way.

As we get close to Fred Meyer and Starbucks, he pulls out the Flip camera and asks me to clean it off because the lens is dirty.  I clean off the lens and give it back to him.  He tries to turn it on and sadly complains that the batteries are dead, “Oh man, I wanted to film you getting your Christmas present at your parents’ house.”  I’m thinking, then we will get new batteries there, why are you stressing out?

Then we round the corner to Starbucks.  I notice a van with excessive Christmas decorations on it, and before I am done processing that, Ty exclaims, “Who is that!?” and I see it is one of Ty’s friends, odd seeing him here Christmas eve, I think.  Until I realize what is even more odd: he is running across the street to a whole ‘gang’ which happens to be quite a few of our close friends and family, and as it dawns on me that I might be the target of some horrible –gasp- surprise that everyone but me knew about and will involve people staring at me for a prolonged period of time, which is my worst nightmare… I look back at that van and read the sign in the front window (I saved it and took a picture of it later so I could remember)…



…and start balling.  And proclaim over and over while crying that Ty is “so mean”.  And hide my face in my coat.  And tell Ty that I hate him.  And finally get out of the van and stand there crying while everyone stares at me.  They must have wondered if I didn’t like the van. 

When I was done making a fool of myself, self-consciously wiping my face and trying to check out the van while knowing everyone was staring at me, we all went into Starbucks and spent five bucks on a drink and visited for a while.  It was lovely, and I did kiss my husband and tell him I loved him and I loved the van and I did not, in fact, hate him, but never to surprise me again.  ;)

After it was done, hubby couldn’t believe I hated surprises, and said, “Would you really rather not had our friends there?”  I told him honestly, “If it was all about me, yes.  But you worked so hard for this surprise and wanted to share it, so I am glad they were there to share it with us.”  Plus many of them helped clean the van, hide it, make excuses for him while he detailed it and one of them brought it there for the surprise, so it was nice of him to include everyone.

And now I am cruisin’ the mom van in style…



It is 4 years newer than our Jetta and 7 years newer than my old van.  Everything was broken, and I do mean EVERYTHING, on the old van, so this one seems like a space ship compared to a wagon, seriously.  It is lovely and I feel super blessed and spoiled and still cannot believe that my hubby pulled off this huge surprise, saving all year, doing side jobs and lying telling me that he only made $100 in a whole weekend, and stashing the rest away for months and months!  I am blessed to have him taking care of me!

Thanks Nicole, for sending the pics, they're great!  =)

The End.

photo for grandma

 

I thought I would share the product of a seriously last minute photo shoot we did of all my mom’s grand kiddos…

My sister-in-law and I rounded up the kids on Friday before christmas and did the photo shoot in about 5 minutes in my pasture.  On christmas, after we opened presents, I showed mom on the computer – super ceremonious, huh?  But, we got the job done and brought a smile to grandma’s face!  I gave her a few different edited versions of my favorite shot, with and without the text. 

gift ideas { hop scotch mat }

 

This is one of the gifts I made for some little friends for christmas…

It’s a handmade hopscotch mat to provide hours of healthy, energy-burning play indoors…

It was super cheap and easy to make (I roughly used a tutorial I pinned on Pinterest).  For the mat, I bought a 4’ x 15’ canvas painters drop cloth from the hardware store for less than $10.  I drew out the hopscotch pattern using a sharpie and a ruler and a 1’ square template.  Then I cut off the excess length of mat and hemmed that edge.  Then I used fabric paint and a 5-cent sponge paint brush to paint on the numbers.  I made three little beanbags (there are three girls) for them to toss.  Done!

It was easy, is very healthy and great for moms when we can’t say “go outside!”  It has been used a few times already.  I imagine it would be a great gift for kids who live in apartments… or in the Pacific Northwest where even if you live on a couple acres, sometimes the rain makes it seem like you might as well live in an apartment since you never get to go outside!  Sorry…  Can you tell what the weather’s bee doing here???  Anyway, I had to share this sweet gift for any time of year, for less than ten bucks!

gift card wrapping

 

Hey – I didn’t share this in time for Christmas, but people give gift cards for birthdays, anniversaries and thank-yous all year, right?  It still applies.  It’s an easy way to wrap a gift card…

Take a decorative paper – could be scrap book paper, maps, music, book pages, etc. – and (if needed) cut to about 1.5 times as wide and 3 times as tall as your gift card (my hymnal pages were just the right size).  Fold the bottom edge up, leaving enough of the top showing to fold down as an envelope flap…

With this one fold completed, sew around the perimeter of the paper, leaving 1/4 inch seam allowance, using thread color of your choice…

Then wrap your gift card in a little tissue (I used vintage sewing patterns which are printed on tissue, which I got at the thrift store), stick it in the envelope, fold the flap closed and secure with some twine or ribbon! 

Ta-da!  I think this adds a personal touch to giving “impersonal” gift cards!

I ended up slipping this little envelope inside a zippered pouch I made for a gift, and then slipping that inside of an old sewing pattern envelope…

See the sewing pattern envelope?  I just love that look.  Any of these could simply be done with different colored ribbon and would be fitting for any time of year.  This little package…

With a brightly colored twine like turquoise or orange, and no holly berries, or another floral sprig, this would make a sweet package for any time of year.